No I'm not implying that you are lying. I'm saying that it's impossible for Apple to have "refurbs" of a new phone on launch day. That's not how refurbs work. They most likely gave you a new phone as a replacement.
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Horrific Apple Store experience, can anyone help me out here with my Apple Watch?
- Thread starter DMG35
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Dude again, I wasn't complaining about the loaner. I wasn't happy about it because I need my phone for work but somehow you've twisted this into me being upset that I got an XR loaner. I was upset over the 5 hours I spent dealing with the situation as well as how the Apple employees handled it. My original gripe was losing all of my Apple Watch data because I followed the advice that THEY gave me. I thanked them for the loaner, I know it was better than getting nothing. At no time did I demand an iPhone 14 Pro Max as a loaner phone.
The return period (30 days?) and the warranty/AppleCare+ period are fundamentally different. This is not new news.
You want them to give you the same treatment/options during your AppleCare+ period as during the initial return period? That sure sounds like entitlement, to me.
Indeed, the iPhone 13 replacement they gave me on launch day was likely not mechanically refurbished, rather it was designated as refurbished and in a plain box.
Now you are setting the bar based on your experience. Replace within 30 days, otherwise repair.
Apple can do whatever it wants, but from a customer satisfaction standpoint they should make it clearer.
Such as: "We will attempt to repair the product under warranty. If the product cannot be repaired, it will be replaced. If the product cannot be repaired or replaced, the full purchase price will be refunded."
But they don't do that so we are left arguing about what to expect when these things happen. That's not entitlement, it is consumer confusion about what to expect.
I didn't see any published rule about return period versus warranty being fundamentally different. That's just your take on it. Maybe that's how Apple operates, but we can only divine it from observing different people's experiences. It would be nice if they would be more forthright about how they do it. Probably won't happen though.
Your originally described them as "incompetent jerks" for the "entire experience". All we have to go by is what you wrote.
It does indeed suck you lost your Watch data, I can share your frustrations regarding that, as well as the time spent.
It's here: https://www.apple.com/shop/help/returns_refund
Refunds -> Exchange an item
If you purchased your item from Apple in the U.S., you can take it to any U.S. Apple Store for an exchange. Item exchanges are, of course, subject to in-store product availability.
^^ That language is not part of the AppleCare+ T&Cs. And this is why my experience was different than the OPs.
First of all, that is only for products purchased directly from Apple. Secondly, the warranty begins on day one and gives Apple the discretion to repair or replace, so it has nothing to do with exchanges trumping repairs. I see however that you are locked into your position that we as customers just need to accept that Apple will not replace under warranty because of "precedent."
"Launch Day" refurbs could be units that failed QA and were repaired prior to the official product launch. Or possibly units from test batches or assembly line ramp-up.
My iPhone was purchased directly from Apple, which is why I chose the option for exchange. OP is past the return period, so he doesn't have that option.
I'm not 'locked into' anything other than Apple should be held to their T&Cs. Anything above and beyond is subject to their capabilities and discretion.
Indeed they could be. But they could also be brand-new units just packaged as white-box. I was given the option to get a full refund, but I chose the 'refurb', as they didn't have any retail units in stock.
Well it was the heat of the moment right after I lost the 8 years of health data that I had on it. I'm sure they aren't jerks, but they absolutely were incompetent. And they did act like they couldn't care less when I lost all of said data. I'm not saying they should drop everything and have a ceremony for my years of data lost. But they could have at least apologized and said they were sorry for giving me bad advice. Not a single person apologize for not only the amount of time I spent dealing with the situation or for the data lost based on their advice. That is what made it a horrible experience, not getting an XR as a loaner. I wasn't thrilled with getting it, but I did thank them for giving it to me so I at least had something.
I'm absolutely baffled about what about this experience is so terrible other than the inconvenience of having to get your phone replaced. They could've been up-front about it.
Your phone required a replacement; they didn't have the replacement units in stock. So, they gave you a loaner phone while you were without a phone. Considering you DON'T get that kind of service with literally any other carrier or phone manufacture or even Asurion, I fail to see how this is at all "horrific".
Incidentally, so long as you restore the phone from an iCloud backup, you can pair your watch to the replacement phone anew and have your fitness data (which actually lives on the phone more than it does on the watch) carry over each time.
An inconvenient experience? Sure. No denying that. Horrific? May we all be so lucky to only have such first world problems in our lives.
everbody should have known this day was coming from the Apple Stores . With people returning phone after phone for ******** . Plus the healthcare they provide there employees is nuts
Actually they did have the phone in stock, they just wouldn't give one to me. And pretty much everything in this forum is first world problems, but that doesn't mean we can't talk about them.
And you didn't read regarding the watch so I'm not getting into that again.
certainly in Portugal, its the law. i am guessing it or something similar is the law in most countries. if something breaks in under 30 days they have to give me a new one or a refund. after that they just have to repair it.
i am still at a loss as to how you lost your health data as that doesnt make sense.
i had an XS and an AW3. the AW3 was reset many times as it was impossible to do updates without wiping it because it had so little memory space. I bought an Iphone 14 pro and a AWSE2022 and the watch arrived first. i added it as a new watch as i never restore from backup. worked fine. then replaced the XS with 14 pro, took it off the XS and added to 14pro, again not restoring from backup. and on checking just now, my health data goes back to 2018. which is what id expect along with my contacts and calendar and stuff.
As an Apple Care + customer I don't bother with the store, and neither should you. Express replacement every time.
Newsflash, all competent and dedicated Apple Store employees have long left and have been replaced by Apple yes men who don't know anything technical and are just to follow the Apple steps of service and policies with little to no technical experience.
For the most part, Apple Store employees are guessing what may or may not happen as Apple does not spend time on educating its own staff on the inner workings of its products.
Always assume the Apple Store employees are there to protect Apple first and only Apple. You surrender all liability to them by agreeing to any "reservation" and any repair sadly.
See quote above from the Apple Store employee. Apple has the largest market cap in the world, so it should not be a surprise that they are being held to a higher standard. First world problems or not, Apple holds itself out as a premium brand and is priced accordingly, which leads to heightened expectations. I do not see why some people here are defending their practices against customer complaints especially regarding warranty issues. Apple can afford to replace defective products, and they used to do that, but no more. The criticism is fair IMHO.
That’s dependent on the Apple Store right ? Last year they had no problem replacing my wife’s 13 Pro Max on the spot.
When we had the 6s+ and had the bad battery fiasco an Apple Store closer to LA (spent an hour past appointment time waiting for someone) who refused to replace our iPhone despite having AppleCare+ - and us showing them the battery dropping 40% in an hour and shutting off way before 0%. We got frustrated and went to another Apple Store who, within 6 minutes of us walking into the store, replaced our phone on the spot, thanked us for our AppleCare+ membership and apologized for the other store's behavior.
We've been going to that Apple Store since the 6+ and have had consistent treatment.
Apple got to be one of the biggest companies in the world by having consistent procedures in place. I work for a large company. Things like this are what can make or break your P&L.
There’s a few situations where we are prompted to replace a device.
Eg. Previously, certain devices displays weren’t compatible with a rear glass repair, so we’d swap it. That’s now been fixed and we repair as normal.
I’m guessing with your 6s that it may have been kernel panicking and the first store just didn’t notice the logs, but the second did. Again, this is now easier to catch as our testing check for this.
Either way, replacing a device when it should be repaired is a ding on metrics for that store and technician.
OK… maybe I overlooked it… but since this is about possibly lost Health data: Isn’t iCloud backup activated? If yes: What‘s the problem?
The AW itself doesn’t hold the data, it syncs it back to the phone and therefore it definitely isn’t lost. Even if unpairing the Watch, the data will be there and if pairing it again, it will register as „new“ data source, adding to the already existing data.
So what am I missing, apart from the fact that this store experience was crappy and yes, exchange replacement is the way to go if you have AC+?
The AW itself doesn’t hold the data, it syncs it back to the phone and therefore it definitely isn’t lost. Even if unpairing the Watch, the data will be there and if pairing it again, it will register as „new“ data source, adding to the already existing data.
So what am I missing, apart from the fact that this store experience was crappy and yes, exchange replacement is the way to go if you have AC+?
It has always been like that with Apple. Everything is nice and rosy till you are in trouble.